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Firm’s estimate to build Hadrian’s Wall

Published at 11:42, Wednesday, 27 May 2009

THE company building a new business park in Barrow was asked to calculate how much it would cost to build Hadrian’s Wall today.

Carillion, which is working on the Waterfront business park on Barrow Island, which includes some traditional stone walls, calculated that it would take around 1,500 construction workers about two-and-a-half years to build a modern version of Hadrian’s Wall, Europe’s longest historic monument, at a cost of £400m.

Support services and construction company Carillion was asked by Hadrian’s Wall Heritage Ltd – for a bit of fun – to produce a rough estimate of the cost of building a new wall as part of a series of historical re-enactment events taking place across Hadrian’s Wall from May 24 to 31.

The Living Frontier events aim to bring 2,000 years of history along the Wall to life. Hadrian’s Wall was one of the biggest engineering projects undertaken by the Roman Empire and has dominated the landscape throughout the intervening period.

Historians believe that it took 1,500 Roman soldiers (three legions) about six years to build the wall.

Linda Tuttiett, the chief executive of Hadrian’s Wall Heritage, says: “It can be difficult for some people looking at what remains of Hadrian’s Wall to really appreciate quite what an extraordinary achievement it was.”